`CYCLE A 15TH SUNDAY
Isaiah 55: 10-11, Romans 8:18-23 and Matt. 13: 1-9
How’s your Flower or Vegetable Garden Growing? This year, I purposely bought seed and plants that were considered to be of a higher quality. In the last few years when I planted RADISHES for instance, I use seeds that I bought for like 10 packets for a dollar. And my radish yield was DISMAL. This year I bought packages for 1.69 each. And the yield was PHENOMENAL. This year, I have already been eating Cherry TOMATOES. A seed is something small, almost insignificant, but when God and man work together, seeds have ENORMOUS POWER and POTENTIAL.
In the last 50 YEARS we seen the power of this combo at work. Some of us remember the sixties, when scientists were predicting massive worldwide famine. They said that the famine would hit countries like India very hard. India’s population had grown to 440 million and experts like Paul Erhlich agreed that its land could not feed so many people. In fact the first line of his book ‘The Population Bomb’ said, “The Battle to feed all of humanity is over”. Some concluded that the only thing the world could do about India’s surplus population was to ‘let them starve’.
However there were men who saw things differently. One was named Norman Borlaug. (Born in Cresco, Iowa and died in 2002.) In the 1960’s, he went to India NOT with a SHIPLOAD of food but with a WHEAT seed, he developed, called “SONORA 64.” Skepticism ran high, but Borlaug convinced the authorities to give it a try. They planted some ‘Sonora 64’ wheat in the Punjab region of India. The results were SPECTACULAR. And as the years moved on, and so did India’s population to over 1 billion, India is now a net Wheat exporter.
That Green Revolution of the 60’s also found the research of Dr. Peter Jennings and Henry Beachell, introducing a new variety of RICE, called IR8. That variety started from a cross of 2 rice seeds that produce 130 original seeds. And from those 130 seeds came the game changer IR8. Formerly about 2.2 acres could produce about a ton of rice. With IR8 seed, this same acreage – without fertilizer – yielded 5 tons of rice and, under optimum conditions, 10 tons. Thus IR8 seed brought about a ten-fold increase in the rice harvest. These new seeds enabled country after country to avert famine and again many actually produce a rice surplus.
Jesus today speaks about the ULTIMATE seed – a seed powerful like food producing Sonora 64 or IR8 – this seed is a ‘Game Changer’ for the Spiritual Revolution. This SEED is the WORD of God. And Jesus asks us to believe in it and to become a SOWER of His SEED…in our selves, in families, in our neighborhoods and in the world. Promising skeptics, that this SEED will bring about an abundant harvest.
We still live in a world where people are physically hungry – so the Green Revolution must continue. Yet with just casual observation, we know we live in a world where millions are STARVING spiritually. The Word of God, a Spiritual Seed, has great power to keep people from starvation; but the Devil, Persecutions and Worldly Allurements are blocking the potential harvest. Think about how we have come to accept in the last 50 years or at least tolerate adultery, abortion, homosexual marriage, cohabitation, birth control, in vitro fertilization, gambling and pornography. Then too we find many in a spiritual malaise. They don’t attend Mass, so they can’t hear the word of God or be nourished with the Eucharist. WEED SEED sewn too, by faulty thinkers and leaders, is destroying people and families.
Good people see ALL this and say, “it is awful, but what can I do about it? If someone wants to throw away his life, it’s his problem, not mine.” You know, that’s like saying, ‘The battle to save humanity is over’… ‘let them starve.’ Thankfully, Jesus and the church refuse to take on that attitude. Jesus gives us the REAL SEED – and tells the church to SOW it with ABANDON. Don’t WORRY if some lands on footpaths and gets trampled – or upon rocks and gets eaten by birds. Whatever happens, keep sowing the Word of God. The Seed of God works in mysterious ways. It will bring about an abundant harvest.
It was back in the 70’s when Pope Paul Vi launched the ‘New Evangelization’ Revolution with ‘Evangelii Nuntiandi, every pope since has underlined the importance of Spreading the Word of God as the main MISSION of the Church. So the comparison between the seeds of Wheat or Rice and the seed of the word of God should not be lost on us. The seeds planted not only stop Starvation, but subsequently individuals and societies grow and flourish. The question we each need to answer is: as clergy and laity, am I witnessing to Christ’s mercy and generosity today? The answer comes simply that we first must allow the fullness of God’s word to take root in our hearts. The abundant harvest of loving actions will come forth. And while the externals are well and good, in the work of Evangelization, there is no substitute for each of us to be SOWING the WORD of God, letting others HEAR it and then letting it take root in their hearts.
Think of all the people you know who’s lives are affected by the Weed seeds of the Devil. Think of the individuals or families around you that are flowering beautifully! Being a Sower of the Word of God, involves sacrifice – and humiliations. But St. Paul tells us, “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” So this active participation in the mission of the church also contains TREMENDOUS JOY. Jesus guarantees that his Word will have its effect. This seed will bring a great harvest of souls – thirty, sixty, even a hundred fold.
It is NOT TO LATE to save the world. We MUST NOT let anyone STARVE. Let the WORD of God REIGN in our hearts.
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